CRISIS hit Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust is to be run by a part-time boss, the Gazette has learned.

The trust, which is proposing to close maternity units in Devizes and Malmesbury, and has already closed beds at both Devizes and Malmesbury hospitals as part of plans to save £10 million over the next three years, has been without a permanent chief executive since Barbara Smith resigned in September.

Now the job is to go to someone who is already in a similar post at another health trust who will have to juggle the demands of the Kennet and North Wiltshire trust at the same time.

Malmesbury councillor John Thomson, who is on the project group of the proposed new Malmesbury Hospital, condemned the proposal to have a part-time chief executive.

He said: "The whole idea of setting up primary care trusts was that they would be separate and have their own board of directors, so it seems rather farcical that our PCT will be run by the chief executive of another trust.

"It is a very uncertain time regarding Malmesbury Hospital and the maternity unit and if there is to be a new person at the top will he or she be put in to cut costs or to improve health delivery?

"Will the ambitions and plans of the new person be in line with the board or will it be a sea change?"

The trust, which received a zero rating in national performance ratings in July, is currently being run on a job share basis by Stephen Golledge and Mike Theelke, both senior directors of West Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust.

They are due to leave on December 31 and the board of the Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT together with the Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority, have decided to offer the job of chief executive to another chief executive in the region.

Nine PCTs who all received at least a one star rating have been invited to apply to run Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT.

Deadline for applications was Monday, and an appointment will be made in the middle of December.

It is understood that West Gloucestershire PCT has not submitted an application.

Geoff Scaife, the chief executive of the strategic health authority, said the successful chief executive would have to continue running their own PCT as well as Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT.

But he said the new chief executive might use his or her own existing director colleagues to help.

Mr Scaife said: "We felt that simply replacing a chief executive that had departed would not be enough. It was our judgement that the team at Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT wasn't as strong as it needed to be.

"It was a relatively inexperienced team that was recruited.

"If we can get experienced people from another PCT, they can bolster the existing team.

"We are breaking new ground with this approach but it has happened at PCTs in other areas of the country. Single people can run two organisations.

"I am confident it can work at Kennet and North Wiltshire PCT."

Mr Scaife said the new chief executive would not double their salary.